BOSTON (WWLP) – The Senate, the House, and Governor all seem to be on different pages on how to protect teenagers from the harms of social media and cell phone usage.
Samaritans hold briefing at State House
Governor Healey held a press conference to announce her own social media initiatives, including requiring companies to change default settings like infinite scroll and auto-play for users under 18, turn off location tracking, limit cumulative social media use to 2 hours a day, and more.
“What can we do to deal with the reality that kids are suffering disproportionately, higher rates of depression, anxiety?” said the governor. The governor says the two hour limit will apply to all social media companies collectively.
22News asked the governor how this would function–how would Instagram know how long a person has spent on TikTok?
A deputy attorney general stepped up to the podium, and told 22News she “doesn’t know” how this will work in practice, and it would be up to social media companies to figure it out.
“I think anyone that has used social media understands that the apps know a whole lot about you, not just from your use of the app, but from your use of the device off app,” said Deputy AG Sara Cable.
It is also unclear if the House and Senate will be willing to pass additional social media policy right after the House passed their own version just days ago, and the Senate passed cell phone policy for teens that did not touch social media regulation.
The Governor’s office says this legislation will be filed as part of another supplemental budget on the heels of one that passed last week.
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